People & Places

Best Pro-Immigrant Activist Phoenix 2013 - Lydia Guzman of Respect-Respeto and the Arizona League of United Latin American Citizens

Civil rights activist Lydia Guzman's tireless efforts on behalf of undocumented families, her liaisons with the media, and her dogged pursuit of evidence of racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office have made Maricopa County and Arizona a better place and helped bring about the ACLU's win in Melendres v. Arpaio. In the Melendres decision, federal Judge G. Murray Snow found that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the MCSO were guilty of prejudiced policing toward Latinos and ordered them to stop. True, many lawyers, activists, and others helped bring about the victory in Melendres, but perhaps none so steadfast and indefatigable as Guzman, for whom the Melendres decision was a personal triumph as well as one for the entire Latino community.